Honey and Spice, Everything's Nice....: 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Strawberries and such...

Cameron Highlands is raining with strawberries. Strawberries are not only edible but can also be taken to sleep as pillows. Hahaha.

You can find strawberry key chains, strawberry pillows, strawberry pencil cases, strawberry magnets, strawberry slippers and countless other strawberry designed products. One my first day in CH, I found myself surrounded by strawberry products to be rather fun, but come the 2nd day, I got tired of this. Everywhere in the nook there are strawberries. Most shops sell the same things. Even the night markets are filled with the same souvenirs.

Living in NZ and Canada exposed me to strawberry picking (the real thing~fruit grown in soil), but the strawberries here were grown in a slightly different way. We didn't get to strawberry pick in CH, but what I enjoyed most was the food made out strawberries. Here are some pics I took while we were strawberrying in CH.

Waffles with strawberry jam (okay la...so so...not so yumm)

Strawberry and cream & Strawberry sundae

Enjoying myself....

Strawberry jam, strawberry tea, strawberry preserves and strawberry fridge magnet which I took home

...of tea and scones

While vacationing in Cameron Highlands, I decided to take everyone up to Bala's Chalet and Restaurant for some tea and scones. The atmosphere around Bala was rather relaxing.

Bala's Chalet & Restaurant

The scones were excellent, served with imported butter and strawberry jam. The cream they serve with the jam was unusual: pure white in colour and very dense. I thought it could be the whipping cream, but whipping cream is usually lighter. A mouthwatering combination with the delicious scones was the tea. My hubby thought that the tea was perfect.

Beautiful scones

This combination of 2 pieces of scones and a teapot of tea costs RM22.50. I think it's a little pricey. But with the ambiance and great scones, no price is comparable to the experience.

The scones and tea are just to our liking

Hb & I posed while waiting for our order

Patiently waiting

Exotic lomak cili api

This is our 2nd trip to Restoran Nelayan on Jalan Zaaba, Seremban. To those who never ever had any taste of masak lomak negeri style, have a visit here. You will find a variety of masak lemak cili api and a wide range of ulam-ulaman and sambal belacan, tempoyak and cencalok. Yummm.......

A range of ulams

All the sambal belacans and cencaloks and tempoyaks

My kids love the 'siput' and 'otak' is my hb's favourite

See the 'landak' meat???

Tembusu is the inner perut...(I dont know which part of perut actually, but my hb loves this)

This is really expensive....cendawan kukur (1kg costs rm100)

Anga & Ain settled for this

That's hb's choice

That's mine

This restaurant is unique as this is the one that serves EXOTIC masak lomak cili api dishes ranging from porcupine meat (landak), venison meat (rusa) and other exotic dishes. I am not brave enough to try these exotics, so I only settled for Grilled beef masak lomak (daging salai). Hubby paid RM80 for a lunch for 6 adults.

An unexpected turn of event

My ODC which we just overhauled its engine went overheated in Bandar Seri Putra in Bangi. We were on our way to a short trip to Cameron and all our plans went haywire. Because it was my sister's first trip to Cameron Highland, I decided to proceed with this holiday. Well, didn't want to ruin her excitement. Zahidee, my nephew came to our rescue. He helped us out with our ODC and let us used his Wish. We were on our way up when we received a BBM message saying that the ODC has been towed by Evo's sister company in Gemas.

My ODC being towed from Bukit Mahkota to EVO in Gemas

Road trip to CH was fine. It was almost 12 midnight when we finally reached Greenhill Apartments.

2 days in Cameron Highland, time to head home. But then again, our ODC was still at Evo Gemas.

After sending Nasri off in UIA, we had a good ride via Plusliner coach. When was the last time I took a ride on a bus??? Hmmm...let's see, can't remember. It must have been years....

Dad is one happy man...he didn't have to
drive this time

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Can Apricot Seeds Fight Cancer?

Have you heard that apricot seeds help fight cancer? I have no idea about this. To read a medical report is just too strenuous for my eyes. If you need more information about this, try this link: Cancer Tutor. One thing for sure, apricot seeds contain Vitamin B17 (Laetrile).

There are many success stories from people using just laetrile or apricot seeds. You can check out this site: Anti Cancer Info.

I have also found in my readings that apricot seeds do contain cyanide which actually could be poisonous if taken in big quantities.

I bought a half kilo of apricot seeds last week and make a point to chew 3 seeds a day as a prevention against cancer. Yucky taste!!! My oh my, what bitter taste you have, apricot seeds.

I found other benefits of apricot seeds (copied from http://greatstuff.hubpages.com/hub/Health-Benefits-of-Apricot-and-Apricot-Seed).

It is claimed that vitamin B17 helps in the prevention of cancer. Apricot seed has the highest percentage of B17 in any fruits and consuming this seed will help prevent cancer.
Vitamin B17, and hence apricot seed, also helps to lower high blood pressure.
Helps to reduce pain associated with arthritis.
Helps to maintain the general health and well-being. Hence, it will strengthen the ability to resist infections like colds and flu.

Well, if you want good health, forget about the taste. Perhaps you should try it with a piece of chocolate to get rid of that taste.

Peace!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Samsung Tab 2 7.0 vs Blackberry Torch 9860

Yeah, right, my best buddy, BB 9860 crashed for the 3rd time... (sulking). First, it was early Dec 2011. I had 2 wait for 2 months before Celcom finally decided to replace it with a new phone. Got my phone in Feb 2012, and it (the new phone) crashed again. Hang and could not be turn on. I was told it was a software issue. But it took Celcom only less than 12 hours to get it repaired. Last week, another crash. I googled and learnt the trick to reboot it myself, nahhhh....I was unfortunate. Took it back to Celcom (lucky me, the warranty ends December this year) and Celcom promises at least 1 month till I get my Torch back.

I felt so "lonely" without a smartphone that I decided to get something today. Dragged Zul and Anga to Skudai Parade, and got my hands on a Tab 2. Well, I was undecided about whether to pick Note 2 or Tab 2. But I rest on Tab 2. Why?

All covered in white.....

Of course Note 2 has the advantage with multitasking & writing 'notes', but I blog quite often. I find Note 2 a little too small for updating my blog and googling. How to use the Tab as a phone? Oklah, I opt to the use of the loudspeaker. Besides, when I used Torch 9860, I always speak via the loudspeaker.

What will happen to my beautiful Torch? See la. I might sell it on Mudah. Or perhaps pass it over to Zul or Anga......Today, I'm going to be busy downloading stuffs into my Tab 2 from the Aps Store.

A holiday home in Lake Tekapo

In winter 2010, the 3 families decided to book a winter holiday in Lake Tekapo. Rina's, Ann's and my families book a flight from Auckland to Christchurch via Jetstar. I remember paying only NZD300 for my family for a return trip. That would total up to RM750 for the 5 of us. Cheap as?

Right after touching down at Christchurch International Airport, we headed straight to Carleton (errk, have I got the name correct???) to do some grocery shopping. We collected our minibus which we rented and headed straight to Lake Tekapo where we would be putting up for 2 nights. I was in charge of house hunting and vehicle hunting. Relieved that the house I chose was "extra spacious" for these 3 families to share. I'm sharing with you the view of this house we rented for our winter holidays.